2015 – Best of the Year, Month by Month: April

2015 has been a great year for music. So many good albums, songs and new bands. Here are the things I loved from April‘s releases. The ones I loved the most are marked with a red ||. From now on, it will be very, very difficult to limit myself to only a few releases, because there are so many beautiful albums and songs to choose from… I will try, at least!

Alex G – Trick || One of several good, lo-fi releases from Alex G this year. This was originally released in 2012 and rereleased in 2015Bed Rugs – Cycle || Very good psych-pop album from this Antwerp based band. Some brilliant songs on it.Black Lizard – Solarize || Another great psychedelic pop album, this time from Finland’s Black Lizard on the fine Soliti Records.Cold Mailman – Everything Aflutter || What a great album this is! These Norwegians call their style “Postapocalyptic-surf-emo-pop”, whatever that means, but I would put them in my collection next to Prefab Sprout, I think. Beautiful, beautiful music.Colleen – Captain of None || This one is probably not for everyone, but I absolutely love it. I have been a fan of this French musician for many years, and she makes the most beautiful music. Unique and undescribeable. Listen to it in the Spotify list below.Faith Healer – Cosmic Troubles || One of my favourites this year. Brilliant pop songs. Melodic, melancholic, calming music. Canadian band.Fever Dream – Moyamoya || Very nice shoegaze/dreampop album with noisy guitars and great melodies.Various artists – Indiepop Shop Talk vol 1 || A HUGE 50 song indiepop charity compilation from members of the Indiepop Shop Talk musicians Facebook group. Including great songs from amongst others Bubblegum Lemonade, The Arctic Flow, The Hi-Life Companion, The Very Most, Postal Blue and … yours truly. Buy/listen here.George Fitzgerald – Fading Love || Lots of analogue synth sounds and very nice, dreamy vocals.Howling – Sacred Ground || A stunningly beautiful electronic/experimental album.James Blackshaw – Summoning Suns || Oh, I love this. Somewhere between folk and experimental, and always beautiful.Milky Wimpshake – Encore, Un Effort! || Great new album from Milky Wimpshake! Filled with perfect, jangly indiepop, brilliant melodies and wonderful bittersweet, fun lyrics.Moon King – Secret Life || Not a perfect debut album, but it had some really good moments. Well worth the listen if you like dreamy pop with some edges.Skelocrats – Bella Bella || I’ve fallen slowly more and more in deep love with this band from Dublin, and their new album is so so so good. Who can resist indiepop gems like “Lyin’ Eyes” or “What am I?” ? Brilliance.Speedy Ortiz – Foil Deer || Rough indie, – it sometimes reminds me of Pavement with female vocals.Stornoway – Bonxie || I know this band is one of those you either love or hate. I love them. This is very good indie folk pop, with some beautiful melodies and heartfelt lyrics.Støv – Støv || So nice to hear a really good, interesting album sung in my own Northern Norwegian dialect. Støv makes beautiful shoegazy, dream poppy, psych poppy songs, and it is quite bold to start their debut album with a song that ends with an entire minute of guitar noise. It’s a beautiful album, also very suitable for non-norwegian speakers.Waxahatchee – Ivy Tripp || Not 100% convinced, and I am still doing the “do I like this or not?”, but I think I do.Westkust – Last Forever || This is great! Nothing less. So many wonderful songs on it. A very, very strong contender to my top 10 albums of the year list. There will not be such a list. But if there were, this would probably be on it.White Noise Sound – Like a pyramid on fire || I have really had a thing for psychedelic pop this year, and this album can be put into that category. It’s sometimes very spacey and trippy, other times very pop and sometimes quite noisy. Suits me fine.

SINGLES I LOVED THIS MONTH

Kid Wave

Burning Hearts – Ticket || Oh, how I have missed this band, and it was lovely to hear new music from them again. Very nice dub’y indiepop (- is that description even possible to imagine… ?)C. Duncan – Here to there || A recurring act on these lists, and he will definitely show up on some of the other months’ lists as well. A maker of quality music. Love the B-side as well.Cheatahs – Murasaki || Another recurring act on these lists. I love this single, with its krauty drums, dreamy vocals and take off-guitars. I guess you call this dream pop? Lyrics in Japanese, I think.Kid Wave – Honey || Great shoegaze/dreampop single.The Mary Onettes – Ruins || Great to have these Swedes back! Catchy, atmospheric pop.No Joy – Moon in my mouth || Took a few spins to love, but when it stuck, it really stuck. Weird, dreamy indie.Tamaryn – Hands all over me || One of many good songs from this band in 2015.Tame Impala – Cause I’m a man || Their fans cried “this isn’t psych enough”. I loved it. Very good single with an irresistible chorus. Didn’t fall that much in love with their album later this year, but some very decent songs on that too.YAST – When You’re Around || One of the singles that really has stuck in my head this year. Lovely, Swedish indiepop.

EPs I LOVED THIS MONTH

Young Romance

Firestations – Cold Sweaty Palms || Love this band! The EP includes the great lead track + 3 remixes. I rarely like it when bands fill up an EP with remixes, but Firestations have done that with great success a couple of times, and they are good at finding remixers who actually add something new and interesting to the songs, while keeping the feel of the original. No fillers here.Marble Pools – Marble Pools EP || Very good pop EP, and the second time I will use Prefab Sprout references today. I like Prefab Sprout, and I like this Norwegian band. Beautiful songs.The School – All I Want From You is Everything || As usual, they deliver perfect pop, and this EP is no exception. Love the title, love the songs.Tallinn Daggers – FM Transmission || Very good EP from this Estonian band. If you like the catchy sides of bands like The Cure, New Order, Echo and The Bunnymen etc, you’ll probably love this.Young Romance – Wild EP || They always deliver quality, and this 4 track EP is great. Love the vocals and lyrics.